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How to stay one step ahead of cyber crime

Blogs by author: Global Services, We’re a leading global business communications provider

To defend your organisation from the creeping tendrils of cyber crime, you first need a view of exactly what you’re facing. Here’s how to get it.

2015 — a great year for cyber criminals.

For cyber criminals 2015 was a seminal year. Organisations were hit by 971 unknown malware attacks every hour, a new DDOS attack occurred every 20 minutes and users in enterprise organisations accessed a malicious site every five seconds. Not to mention the fact that 89 per cent of organisations downloaded a malicious file, 94 per cent used at least one high-risk application and 82 per cent accessed a malicious site.

On the face of it, these statistics are enough to send a shiver down the spine of anyone looking to avoid a cyber attack. And yes, the numbers are scary, but they also tell another story. The positive here is that knowing what the problem is, is the first step to finding a solution. And to that end, Check Point’s 2016 Security Report is a valuable tool.

A paper that paints a daunting picture.

Check Point’s report takes an in-depth look at the cyber-security landscape, and uses the information to suggest actions you can take to stay secure in the future.

To give you an idea of the kind of insight you’ll find in the paper, here’s a brief summary of some of the important topics covered:

The latest trends in known and unknown malware.

According to the report, the most common known malware threats to look out for are SALITY and CONFICKER. SALITY gives criminals the opportunity to steal your sensitive information, while CONFICKER gives attackers remote access to your systems. In 2015, a known malware was downloaded every 81 seconds, and a bot communicated with its command and control (C&C) centre every 53 seconds.

On top of that, unknown malware is on the rise, with nine times more unknown malware appearing in 2015 than it did in the previous year.

The mobile effect.

Over the past four years, smartphone usage has gone up 394 per cent and tablet usage is up more than 1,700 per cent. Knowing that, it should come as no surprise that these devices are now used at work, as well as home. And therein lies a serious security problem. The report highlights the three main attack vectors used to target mobile devices: infected apps, network attacks, and operating system (OS) exploits.

A study of attack patterns.

Knowing the pattern that attacks take plays an integral part in stopping them. And the report picks out the evolution of attacks over the previous year. In 2014, the three main avenues of attack were Denial of Service (DoS), buffer overrun and code execution. In 2015, however, buffer overrun exploits suddenly dropped dramatically and code execution became the most popular from of attack.

How to stay secure.

As well as laying out the risks, the report is filled with advice on what action you need to take to stay secure — from setting effective prevention, to creating secure architecture, to working with an appropriate partner.

What you need to do next.

This has just been a taste of what you can find in Check Point’s 2016 Security Report. If you put any value in keeping your organisation secure, then it’s definitely worth reading the whole piece. The information might be a little disconcerting, but knowing what you’re facing is the only way forward.